The Lord of the flies’ thesis statement, by William Golding

“Lord of the flies” (Lord of the flies) is a novel written by the British writer William Golding and published in 1954, although it did not achieve a great diffusion until several years later, when it became an obligatory reading in schools and institutes Such was his success that he has been taken to the cinema on two occasions: a first time in 1960 and another in 1990. Not to mention that he has inspired other stories such as the series “Lost” (Lost) or the saga “The Hunger Games “(The Hunger Games).

William Golding was born in 1911, in Cornwall (England), and died in 1993. In 1935, he began as a professor of English and philosophy in Salisbury. He ceased his teaching job to join the Royal Navy in the First World War. In 1954, he published his first novel, “The Lord of the Flies”, for which he won the Novel Prize for Literature.

In line with lord of the flies’ thesis, the novel begins with a plane manned by students of a British school who were being evacuated during the war. The plane suffers an accident and crashes on an island. The few who survive are discovered alone on a desert island, without adults and without rules. Soon, they begin to build a society: they choose a leader democratically, Ralph, and establish an object of power: the conch shell. The role of this will be of vital importance, because it is a natural object on which weighs a cultural construction. That is to say, the conch shell itself is nothing, but as a society, children give it power, the power to call assemblies and give the floor.

In addition, they create norms, social groups and hierarchies according to their age, their capacities and their character: hunters, gatherers, firemen, shelter … All these factors are mentioned in thesis statement for lord of the flies.

But as in any society, what initially begins as an adventure full of courage and companionship, democracy and harmony, ends up leading to jealousies and disputes over power.

Jack, chief hunter craves the power that Ralph owns. His insides and manipulations make that, in the eyes of the other children, Ralph seems weak and unfit for command, which will cause them to end up abandoning him to follow Jack whose strength and courage, make him look better leader and the only one capable of delivering them of a terrible monster they call “The Beast”. Only Piggy, a boy constantly teased by his peers due to his chubby appearance, will stay with Ralph, who from that moment will begin to really value their advice and observations.

In relation to the above, and thesis statement for lord of the flies, we see that the novel itself shows how, often, even in a society erected from childhood innocence, the idyllic gives way to a process of animalization and barbarism, a process of deterioration of society that ends up becoming a hell. It is, therefore, a confrontation between the civilized world and the wild world.

This confrontation is the basis of the author’s thought that, in the face of his dystopian contemporaries, he considered that the bad degradation of society was not due to a bad government, but to society itself, to human cruelty itself.

All the good purposes of harmony and democratic coexistence that follow the savage state, return to this when the human being reveals himself as he really is: a savage being, whose most primal instincts are only masked when he lives in a society in which the danger Death is not imminent and there is easy access to basic products. That is, when the struggle for survival is not necessary.

Apart from this, according to the thesis for lord of the flies, one of the most interesting aspects of the novel is the archetypal construction of the characters. All of them are models of behavior, the incarnation of a specific line of thought and behavior. For example, Ralph embodies rationality, common sense, temperance. While Jack is just the opposite, he is proud, impulsive and wild. For his part, Piggy embodies docility and servility; Roger embodies human cruelty, and Simon is the representative of man’s natural goodness.

Such construction of the main characters reflects with fidelity procedures that take place in a society. This disparity of attitudes is accompanied by a common feeling: fear. Fear of the unknown, death, “The Beast” … However, they do not realize that this being they call “Beast” is inside each of them, it is that being that emerges when survival is at stake and what brings out the worst instincts. Precisely to this the title refers, to the evil that nests in ourselves and that comes to dominate us at times. Said evil has always been represented by the devil, which in some cultures is known as “The Lord of the Flies”.

Likewise, it is possible to notice a confrontation between the democratic power represented by Ralph, with a style of government of dialogue and equality; and the authoritarian defended by Jack, based on physical strength. Such a confrontation of powers, as can be mentioned in thesis statement lord of the flies, was taking place during the First World War, a conflict that Golding lived and in which he participated from the British army, so in this novel he turns his thoughts on the matter.

Finally, “The Lord of the Flies” is one of those great classics that not only do not leave the reader indifferent, but remain engraved in his memory by the strength of the acts and reflections that take place in it. An interesting representation of what is still a kind of experiment (although theoretical), sociological, a study on the future of a society built on the edge of the known world, on which it portrays a pessimistic or, perhaps, realistic conception of the human being, which, in any case, invites reflection and questioning of our ideas and principles about ourselves as human beings.